Topic Tuesday// Housing Insecurity & Homelessness// Tues 26th July 2022 7-8:30PM AEST

Interested to hear your thoughts on this @Patchworks @TAB

Hello @chibam We've not long started. Happy to have you here with us 😊

Hi @Patchworks, welcome to the space and thank you so much for sharing about yourself and what you've experienced. It can be an incredibly destabilising and stressful, housing insecurity like that. There's certainly a lot that needs to improved in terms of stigma and affordable housing. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts throughout the event tonight 😊

Hello @TideisTurning , @Former-Member , @TAB

That was a interesting link @TideisTurning

Hello I have lived in lots of houses shared with other different families Members and never had anywhere to make it my home

Until I inherited my childhood home , turning it into my home until we had a fire which destroyed the house

moved into a room at mum's which was my grandparents house

Thanks @TideisTurning

What does safe and secure housing mean for you? What does this look like?

For me I value my safety and security and housing is a large aspect of that. I like to have a place that is able to be locked up when I am not home and where I feel safe to be, even if I am on my own.

Another part of security is the tenure side so when I'm renting I try for a longer lease for some stability, and to lock in the cost of the rent for longer.

I have experienced both owning a home and renting and that doesn't matter to me so much as living somewhere that makes me feel like I'm part of a community. It's great to know the names of the local shopkeepers and they recognise me too. I think that's another aspect about staying in a similar area for a long time as you have the opportunity to get to know people, even if it's casual acquaintances like shopkeepers/hairdresser/dentist etc.

Hi @TideisTurning . 🙂 Not sure if this discussion is for me, judging by the definitions of homelessness listed on that link you gave in that earlier post. I was curious to see if this thread was going to deal with homelessness under the concept that home is a group of people, not a place.

I think I'll stick around and just see what others have to say.

Oh @Shaz51 . That is awful about finally having a house, only for it to burn down. I'm so sorry. I'm glad to hear though that you still have a place to be

That's a really cool definition @chibam. I'm super curious- thinking of home as a group of people, how would you define homelessness?

Hi @Shaz51 it's good to have you here ❤️ I'm so sorry to understand that that was the context in which you lost your house (which is horrific in any context!), but in the sense that it represented an opportunity for housing security. As someone who's lived through housing insecurity my whole life, I think I can begin to understand the impact of that.

Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts tonight, and I truly hope that there will be another form of housing security in the near future for you 💗